Western Digital CEO Sells Shares Worth Billions Amid AI Rally

Western Digital Corporation (WDC) CEO Irving Tan sold approximately 24,000 shares of the company’s common stock on the open market on February 2 under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan, generating about $6.2 million in cash (roughly ₩80 billion). He still holds around 600,000 shares—equivalent to about ₩200 billion.

On February 6, the company’s chief legal officer sold stock worth roughly $18.3 million (around ₩20 billion) on the open market, trimming part of their position but retaining more than 130,000 shares. And on February 5, another executive sold all tens of thousands of shares held in a family trust; nevertheless, disclosures show they kept a portion of their stake through personal and retirement accounts.

In its fiscal 2026 second quarter, reported at the end of January, Western Digital posted revenue of about $3 billion and adjusted earnings per share of $2.13, both ahead of analysts’ forecasts. Strong demand for high-capacity hard drives in cloud and AI data centers drove roughly 25% year-over-year growth.

The company is also executing a $4 billion share-repurchase program and has fully repaid its 4.75% senior notes due 2026, streamlining its capital structure. Against the backdrop of growing AI storage needs, WDC’s stock price has climbed more than 60% so far in 2026.

A leading U.S. hard-disk and data-storage provider, Western Digital spun off its NAND flash memory business as SanDisk in 2025 and reoriented around ultra-high-capacity drives for cloud and AI workloads. Since Irving Tan took the helm post-spin-off, the company has prioritized high-capacity products and a profitability-focused strategy to expand in the AI and cloud data-center markets. Recent strong results and share-price performance have coincided with these insider stock sales.